The Obama administration poses a threat to religious liberty and assaults the respect for life beginning at conception, according to Maureen Ferguson, president of the Catholic Association.

“The church speaks to the dignity of the human person from the moment of conception until natural death and there has been quite an assault on respect for life and as we were talking about the threats to religious liberty," Ferguson told Newsmax TV in an exclusive interview.

"The Obama administration has yanked grants to groups like Catholic charities because of their adoption policy, yanked grants from Catholic charities for their work on human trafficking simply because they don’t support abortion. Now it’s kind of been a rocky relationship from the start, in particular now on the issue of religious liberty,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson said that while we need to be praying for President Barack Obama, there have been issues from the start of his term that have caused a “great tension.”

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The Obama administration has “put a foot on the gas pedal” with respect to implementing Obamacare and the HHS contraceptive mandate, a move that Ferguson argues is a great threat to religious liberty.

“ . . . This is why the Catholic church along with many other people of faith, the Mennonites, the Presbyterians, people of faith across the board are gravely concerned and have filed suit against the Obama administration.

Thankfully many judges are agreeing that this policy is a deep infringement upon our religious freedom but we’re going to have to see how this plays out.”

Turning to Pope Benedict XVI’s farewell, Ferguson says that one of the most important parts of the pope emeritus’ legacy is the institution of strong child protection policies.

“ . . . Pope Benedict took head on the abuse scandals when he came into office and really cleaned house and most importantly instituted very strong child protection policies. As a mother of five children in Catholic schools I see the effect of these policies all around me. The Catholic Church now has about the strong child protection policies of any institution out there.

The Obama administration poses a threat to religious liberty and assaults the respect for life beginning at conception, according to Maureen Ferguson, president of the Catholic Association.
The church speaks to the dignity of the human person from the moment of conception...